


Mission in a Bottle

by koffeebean



Category: The Dragon Prince (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Blood and Injury, Dark Undertones, Did I say angst?, F/F, I will make that a tag, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Raylangst, Temporary Character Death, The only reason I'm posting this bc i may not be able to if article 13 passes, Time Loop, blood tw, claudia comes along in later chapters, injury tw, kind of, major injuries in some days, should i tag major character death if it's temporary?, torture in one repeat
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-04
Updated: 2019-09-01
Packaged: 2019-09-05 00:45:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 10,300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16800322
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/koffeebean/pseuds/koffeebean
Summary: Again. And again. And again. How many times would Rayla have to do this for? Blood stain after blood stain, failure after failure. Trapped in the same torturous day of death. How can she break free from the eternity that is this one hellish day?It was the bands' fault, she was certain of that. Ever since she tied them around her wrists with the other assassins, she'd been running around in circles, repeating the day of the mission to kill Prince Ezran.What was she doing wrong?





	1. First Bloodshed

**Author's Note:**

> This is going to contain temporary character death, and injuries that I will go into detail into and other dubious content so please heed the warnings if that's a trigger for you. I've always wanted to write a dark fic, and also a time loop fic so I've mashed them together.
> 
> Also the hugest thank you to [A.C.](https://claudias-goth-gf.tumblr.com) for helping me write out the entire script and actions of the first three episodes. Seriously, show her all the love bc I cannot stress how much I appreciate her.
> 
> Enjoy~

Rayla almost collapsed onto the stone floor of the castle, and laid there to catch her breath. It was an extremely long climb to the top of the cliff but she had made it. Her arms ached and felt as though they were moments away from collapsing, and if she had any more to climb, she would have no doubt fallen to her death to the vast woods below. Her arms still shook and her breath came with great difficulty, as though she had to wrestle every gasp of oxygen into her lungs.  
  
  
She lay there for a moment longer, feeling the burn of air entering her tired lungs and a throbbing headache beginning to form, but she pushed it back. Now was not the time.  
  
  
Slowly, she pushed herself up, taking her time to stand. Her muscles screamed in protest but as she stood up taller, she could begin see the wide views of Katolis. It was just as amazing as her home in Xadia; visiting elves often told her that it was beautiful. She just took their word for it because she was used to her scenes.  
  
  
But Katolis stood proudly below, a wide and vast sea of thousands of different shades of green and the earthy smell of the trees and earth that managed to waft it's way up to where she stood, and she could pinpoint a few birds and sparrows who dared to fly higher than the trees, and the many sounds of animals could be heard echoing through the valley.  
  
  
Rayla finally dragged her eyes away from the breathtaking sight of nature to the castle. The human castle. It was standing tall, stone jutting out of a beautiful scene. Humans insisted to work against nature instead of with it, building bricks that were changed from stones, using fabrics that were taken from plants and different animals, and even building large structures to get away from it.   
  
  
All would be saved from a lot of effort if they just decided to live in nature and not on it.  
  
  
The fear of humans and the unknown castle coated her veins and swiped through her stomach as Runaan's words still rifled through her head. _I see now that you're still just a child. Your heart isn't hard enough to do whatever it takes._  
  
  
Sighing deeply and narrowing her eyes, she drew up her hood over her face. “You're wrong about me. I can do this. I _will_ do this,” she said, vigour lacing her tone as she looked at the view ruined by human ownership one last time. Giving in to her duty and putting a stop to her small moment of procrastination made fear build up in her stomach. Not only did she have to go near a human, she had to kill one too.  
  
  
She took a deep breath, and as she jumped through one of the tall stone windows of the castle she drowned out that fear, stuffing it down like she was expected to. Fear would do her no good in an area infested with the likes of humans.   
  
  
It would make her nervous and slip up in a dire situation.   
  
  
No mistakes could be made.  
  
  
Landing her feet on the red carpet ( _human carpet_ , her brain provided helpfully), the fibres caught her eye for a moment. It was no doubt made by a skilled craftsman, but elvish floor materials were better, even if the human product was made with more skill. Elves made carpets and everything better because they asked nature's permission to take an object they needed to craft with. Let it even be a piece of wood from a tree.   
  
  
It was the tree's wood, and they couldn't just take. They had to ask nature's permission, it belonged to her and not them. Humans just took. Destroyed what was not theirs to make something they desired for themselves.  
  
  
Rayla wrinkled her nose in disgust as she rubbed her booted foot against the harsh red. It reminded her of something, but she couldn't place her finger on it… still there were no time for distractions. Pausing to ‘admire’ objects would no doubt get her found out, and maybe even killed.  
  
  
Darting her eyes around to make sure nobody saw her, only satisfied when she recognised this stretch of corridor as empty.   
  
  
No prince here then. The band on her right hand tightened slightly, as if it was unhappy with that fact. Rayla looked at it, the _true_ beauty of weaving. The master elf made this band from mood dust back in Xadia, asking permission from the earth and the lunar object first. How it should always be done.  
  
  
It was pretty, the details running across the soft fabric like water, and the silver mirrored the colour of a moon's bright shine on a clear night. Symbolic, supposedly. No matter how many times Rayla had looked at it earlier, she couldn't help but to be drawn to it. The fabric tightened a little further before resting back to sitting comfortably, as if insisting for her to get a move on already.  
  
  
Rayla took her blades out of their holsters and readjusted them until they sat comfortably in her hands, the cold surface instantly warming up to suit her needs from the weapons. Now was the time for hide and seek, and she needed to find the prince before Runaan and the group. She needed to prove herself to them.  
  
  
Running down the corridor was a lot more fun than she admitted to, zooming past many immobile humans standing on sticks that Runaan told them not to worry about. They were just armour standing still, for decoration. Nobody was inside.  
  
  
Rayla didn't understand why the humans did that. Why not wear the armour for protection instead of making fancy dress party with them? It made no sense just to make them to do nothing…  
  
  
Then again, Rayla almost never understood humans.  
  
  
She slowed to a stop once she saw her first company in these corridors. He was facing away from her and his posture relaxed. He was just walking along, and ridiculous clothes aside, he actually must have had good hearing because he raised his head a fraction.   
  
  
“Ez, is that you? Hello? You know you can't sneak up on me.” The human spun round to face her, a smile on his face. Who was Ez?   
  
  
Rayla could pinpoint the moment he recognised her, his face turning from open and sweet, to closed off and horrified in record time. It sort of gave Rayla's ego a boost, even if she'd never admit it. A human being afraid of her? That was something to be quite proud of. Almost nobody in Xadia was afraid of her, only impressed at her speed and whatnot.  
  
  
“Uh, uh, you're not who I thought you,” the human said, taking a step back, “You're one of those, with the pointy-”  
  
  
Rayla smirked slightly, “Oh, you don't like my ears?” She didn't know why exactly she was humouring herself on this human, but she had to admit, it was kinda fun to mess with him, especially when she saw the horrified expression that filled his face become more pronounced as he realised what he had said.  
  
  
“No. I mean, yeah. Yes, I do, I guess,” the human stuttered, and Rayla felt slightly offended. Like his ears were any better, all round and flat and weird. She must have shown something on her face because he scrambled to cover his words, “I mean, I meant the pointy swords.”  
  
  
Nice save. Rayla stuffed down the urge to smile, this human was really something else, comparing her ears to her swords. Yeah, she was _really_ going to cut him with her pointy sword ears. “That's fair enough,” she said, only to snuff some of the unease off the human's face.   
  
  
Really? These were the humans that they feared so much? If all humans were like this one then they looked like they couldn't even snap a twig in half, and were afraid of anything that moved. “I'm looking for someone.”  
  
  
The human blinked. “Oh. Uh, did you check back there?” he said, pointing behind her. Rayla glanced around to the corridor… but nothing was- ?  
  
  
All of a sudden her vision was blocked and a weight fell on top of her head. Grunting and flailing madly, she managed to grab the damn fabric and pulled (ripped) it off her head, and glared back to the human. He was running down the corridor, yelling all sorts of things that Rayla did not have the care to listen to.  
  
  
That damn human, she was going to kill him when she got her hands on him.   
  
  
The fabric bands on her wrists twinged unhappily as she ran, but she ignored them. Maybe this human could tell her where the Prince and the King were. It was wishful thinking but she was too angry to listen to her logical side. If anything was going by, this boy looked like a page at best, she learned what they were off some human story book, _Knights and Kings_. Nowhere close to a human prince like the (albeit childish) pictures she saw in the same book.  
  
  
Humans were very juvenile if they really went by the words and ideas she saw in it.  
  
  
They reached the end of the hallway and kept running on the battlement wall. A wave of fresh air reached her lungs as they sighed in relief. 

All of a sudden, a group of about five humans came barging at her. Damn, now  _ these _ looked like the humans she was warned about; tall, muscled, rage filled and dangerous.    
  
  
It was almost scary, but Rayla easily overpowered them by flipped over, and then swiping their feet from under them before they had time to advance further and injure or even kill her. They fell under her leg with a loud thunk onto the stone, and she allowed herself a moment to breathe as her heart flipped in her chest and adrenaline spiked through her body.   
  
  
“Hey, you swept the leg!”   
  
  
Rayla faced back to the human boy who had yelled so loud that those damn monsters came for her. “What?!”   
  
  
“Nothing,” he said, almost too fast. He was twitchy, like a newborn foal, and it was far too distracting, so much so that Rayla almost missed the moment when he turned and started running  _ again _ . Do humans  _ ever _ rest? “Lord Viren! Claudia! Anyone!”   
  
  
Wait. Did the human just say  _ Lord _ Viren? He was yelling so much it was hard to distinguish half of what he said… maybe that was the King! Rayla's hopes flared up once more. Her wishful thinking earlier was true, and this human would lead her to the King!    
  
  
This Lord Viren had to be the ruler, and this human was about to call him right to her. Maybe the… Clodain was the King's personal servant?   
  
  
What kind of a name was Clodain?    
  
  
As she caught up with the human boy in the end of the corridor they had entered; she pushed him over into a table to keep him still, because moons and stars above, he  _ needed to stop moving already _ .   
  
  
“I don't want to die!” the boy said, and Rayla felt a tang of sympathy and guilt for him. She didn't really fancy dying tonight either.   
  
  
“You don't have to die,” she said, giving an attempt to shut this human up, because damn would he stop shouting already? “There are only two targets tonight.”   
  
  
“Wait, two? What do you mean?”   
  
  
It must have been the curiosity in his voice, it could have been his wide eyes staring at her. It could have been the fact that he finally stopped moving and was quiet, but Rayla found herself answering him. “I'm here for the king,” she said, ignoring the surprised face he pulled. “And I'm also here for his son, Prince Ezran.”   
  
  
Whatever Rayla must have said in that sentence really upset the boy, and panic swept across his face. “You can't. That's not fair. Why would you hurt someone who's done no wrong?”   
  
  
A surge of anger submerged Rayla, and she held her swords up against the human's throat, ignoring the way he flinched at the cold touch of the blades.    
  
  
Was he really this uneducated on the history of the kingdoms, or was he dumb enough to think that the humans killing the Dragon King and destroying his only egg using dark magic was ‘no wrong’?   
  
  
“Humans cut down the King of the Dragons, and destroyed his only egg, the Dragon Prince. Justice will not be denied.”   
  
  
“I see.” The human looked thoughtful for a moment, before his face fell as though giving in to something. He stood up, no longer afraid of her or death. “Well, then, you've found me. I am Prince Ezran.”   
  
  
Surprise filtered through the anger she felt, and she was left reeling for a second. This was the prince? She was chasing him the whole time, even told him that he didn't have to die only to tell him seconds later that he was one of the targets.   
  
  
Trying to stomp out the surprise and the overwhelming guilt that was flooding through her, she approached him with her blades raised. “I have to do this. I'm sorry. I don't want to, but I have to.”   
  
  
Panic was very visible on the huma- Ezran's face which only multiplied her guilt. “Why? You know this is wrong!”   
  
  
Rayla shook her head sadly, “An assassin doesn't decide right and wrong. Only life and death.”   
  
  
“That's very clever but come on, really? How does this solve anything?”   
  
  
Rayla caught herself about to launch into a conversation about justice, but she stopped herself. She took a small sigh and assigned herself to her fate of killing this boy. Ezran.   
  
  
Prince Ezran.   
  
  
Her first kill.   
  
  
She would make sure she'd never forget the poor boy's face and want for peace.   
  
  
Instead, she repeats Runaan's words from the week before they left for Katolis in a hard voice. “It solves everything.”   
  
  
Before she could change her mind, she flipped her blades and sliced them into Ezran's chest. It cut through his flesh so easily, right up to the hilt. Angled slightly upwards, it slitted right in between his ribs. Ezran gripped at the blades with his hands, a small attempt of understanding what had happened so fast, before he fell backwards onto the red carpet with a soft thud.   
  
  
The action only fully registered with Rayla when she saw Ezran's blood coating her fingertips, wet and slippery as she tried to pull out the blades.   
  
  
He'd bleed out faster this way, it would be over with less pain.   
  
  
She fell to her knees beside the boy as she pulled out her blades, the sticky blood still dripping from the ends of her blades as she witnessed the life drain from the prince's eyes right until they were dull and lifeless. She had stayed with him, allowing him to have company in his last moments, but it did little to ease her conscience...   
  
  
Blood.   
  
  
The red of the carpets reminded her of blood. She understood now.   
  
  
Rayla was so deep in thought, so deep in shock that she barely recognised the angry twinge of the band on her right wrist. She looked at it in distressed confusion. Why hadn't it fallen off? Wasn't it supposed to once that section of the mission was complete… unless.   
  
  
Rayla looked back to Prince Ezran. Was he still alive?   
  
  
Without thinking, Rayla put her head to his chest, staining her white hair with his blood that was still oozing from the wounds she had only just inflicted.    
  
  
No pulse. He was definitely dead.   
  
  
She raised her head, the red smudging across her cheek. What…? Maybe the bands were faulty?    
  
  
The band in question twinged angrily again, and Rayla looked at it in confusion. It was still firmly fastened on her wrist, still a shining silver and grey… but as she stared, she thought she could see a slight blue wisp following the soft pattern.   
  
  
The wisp grew slightly larger in her vision and seemed to hold an air of pure importance with it. Runaan had never mentioned this... was this supposed to hap-    
  
  
Rayla screamed as the blue engulfed her wrist, unbearable pain burned through her flesh and sent electricity cascading through her body and across her spine. As the pain worsened, she mentally screamed and pleaded for it to stop, but she couldn't hold in the noise she made as it worsened. Stop, stop, stop!   
  
  
Her free hand scrambled to scratch it off, but it only phased through the cloud and made the blue latch onto it too, engulfing her left hand with more pain. Rayla couldn't hold in the scream as the pain multiplied because of the action.   
  
  
Then, just as sudden as it came, the pain left, her vision and the blue wisp going with it as she blacked out. 


	2. Realisation

**Day 2**   
  
  
Rayla shocked awake with a gasp. She shot up into a sitting position and let her hand grip at the wrist that was engulfed by the blue wisp first, but no pain met her when she felt the skin there. She looked down at it groggily, only seeing her skin unblemished, unscarred... with no fabric tied there that linked her heart to the mission.   
  
  
Was… was it all a dream?   
  
  
Looking around, the idea of it all being a dream made more sense; the other elves sleeping on peacefully in the tents below, Runaan on lookout at the top of the tree above her, the half moon still high in the sky and she was laying on the branch that she fell asleep on the day before instead of her job of helping Runaan… she got tired, okay?   
  
  
Rayla sighed heavily and let herself fall back onto her makeshift bed. It was a dream. A really vivid and real dream. She could only shake her head and forget it, having thoughts about the mission ahead would only make her mess up.   
  
  
The moon that she could spot through the tree branches ahead told her it was early morning, maybe another ninety minutes until the sun was to come up. That gave her some time to rest at least. Rayla allowed her eyes to slide shut as she curled up on her side, ready to wipe that vicious dream from her memory.   
  
  
“Everybody up,” a loud voice called. Rayla groaned. “We must advance, otherwise we will never make it to the castle in time.”   
  
  
An intense feeling on déjà vu washed over her. Didn't… this happen before?   
  
  
Rayla shrugged it off as her mind playing tricks on her. Runaan used to wake them with ‘everybody up’ before… maybe that was it.   
  
  
“Come on Rayla, we're waiting on you.”   
  
  
Rayla turned around on the branch to see the Runaan standing on the ground below, his stance riddled with impatience. The other assassins were with him, each one in different stages of wakefulness, such as Resdier standing there beside Runaan but he looked as though he was dead on his feet and about to nod off any second.   
  
  
Rayla could have sworn that this had happened already, but she couldn't dwell on that now. She had a job to do... besides, Resdier was always tired in the mornings?   
  
  
Runaan raised an eyebrow that was barely distinguishable in the dark, but Rayla knew when she was being sassed, “Well?”   
  
  
“Yeah, hold on,” Rayla said, pushing herself up. As she joined them on the ground, she couldn't help but wonder about what was going on with her dream… is was a dream wasn't it?   
  
  
“Now, we're all up. We need to leave when we have the cover of darkness-” Okay Runaan had definitely said that before. Maybe she was ill. “-we need our strength, so drink your moonberry juice, but only when necessary.”    
  
  
The group started walking, but Rayla was feeling out of it, so she ambled on behind them purely on autopilot. She wasn't missing Runaan's worried look he cast her way, but she ignored him.   
  
  
She just needed to eat. Maybe that was it…   
  
  
  
  
  
It was not it.   
  
  
More déjà vu hit her when they found the human patrol. The lone human stood there, raising his lantern to see in the darkness after he must have heard them. Rayla could pinpoint the moment he recognised them, eyes going wide as he turned and ran, dropping his only light into the mud.

  
  


Runaan pointed after him, signalling for her to follow and stop him.

  
  


She ran with all her speed, ricocheting herself off trees to catch up, but the human ran on. She could pinpoint him in the darkness, and recognised the exact moment in which he slipped up, almost tripping over a tree root that protruded out of the ground.

  
  


Rayla took this as her moment and kicked him off the path. More similarities struck as the human fell off the beaten track into a mud puddle, rain pouring down and soaking them both from above.    
  
  
It wasn't until the adrenaline of the chase wore off slightly that she realised it.   
  
  
Her blades were criss crossed against his throat, his wide, frightened eyes glanced down at them, and darted back up to her. They screamed the fear that she knew he felt, and it was almost like a punch to the stomach. Her previous feeling of the day's repeat intensified to a sword sharp point as soon as he asked who she was.   
  
  
Rayla lowered her blades, and the gratitude she was already familiar with from the day before swept across the human's face in a silent thank you, and he scrambled to his feet, spreading more mud around himself in the process as he almost slipped. Again, just like the day before.   
  
  
She stared after him like she’d seen a ghost, hair sticking to her face from the rain. She stared for a full minute after he’d gone, her thoughts a stream of frantic yelling.   
  
  
Although her head felt numb and stuffed with clouds - there was a feeling in her gut that was there. She didn’t know how or why this was happening (had happened?) but this feeling in her gut and her instincts were screaming at her that it was very much real, and very much happening.   
  
  
She was living the same day over again.   
  
  
It was the same as yesterday... today? Or was it today, but in another time? Stars above, this was giving her a headache just to think about.   
  
  
She took a deep breath.   
  
  
Luna, she just had to  _ breathe _ .   
  
  
The sun was beginning to appear over the horizon and the rain was beginning to ease up, but that promise of a new dawn did little to ease her worries.   
  
  
_ She was living the same damn day over again. _   
  
  
She knew exactly what was going to happen next. A squirrel will fall from the tree beside her, pick itself up, and scurry away. It happened in her dream, if it was to happen-   
  
  
Sure as lightning, a small red squirrel, soaked through the fur, ran across a tree branch. Rayla watched in horror as it lost its footing and fell into a bush below. Then, just as her prediction, it picked itself up and scurried off to a different tree to her left which was covered in moss and vines.   
  
  
This meant…   
  
  
Runaan and the other elves were going to be discovered later by the butterfly that smelled funny that the humans had brought, and he was going to turn on her after seeing the guard still alive among them, saying that her heart wasn't with the mission. She was just a child.   
  
  
There was only two things she could do to make things right.   
  
  
Chase after the guard and kill him, or double down and do the same as before.   
  
  
As Rayla watched where the human was laid down moments before which was beginning to be lit up by the early morning light, and she remembered the fear that had filled his eyes as she held her blades against his throat. She remembered the ghost of tears begin to fill his eyes, and then the overwhelming relief when she let him go.   
  
  
She knew then and there which one she would choose; then began to wander back to find the berry bush she had seen last time she failed to kill the patrol.   
  
  
As she picked the berries, she allowed her mind to wander as she went through the subconscious task of preparing her swords with the blood-like juices. Why was she reliving this day, but more importantly,  _ how _ ?   
  


-

  
  
  
Rayla drooped her ears when Runaan began the ceremony of the bindings. It was happening again. She knew later, when she had caught Ezran once more, the bands would light afire and burn her flesh, then they'd make her black out and start the day over again.   
  
  
“Four full moons past, on the eve of the Winter's Turn, the humans crossed into Xadia and murdered the King of the Dragons. Then they destroyed his only egg, the Dragon Prince,” Runaan said, and begun tying the bands to his arms. None of the other elves seemed to realise they did this before. Rayla was the only one. “Tonight we bind our lives to justice!” He tightened them, finally looking up from the silver.   
  
  
“My breath for freedom!”   
  
  
“My eyes for truth!”   
  
  
“My strength for honor!”   
  
  
“My blood for justice!”   
  
  
As it came to Rayla's turn, she hesitated. If she was to tie her wrists for the mission, there'd be no going back. Either she found out what the fates wanted, or she'd be subjected to the burning again. Would she even do it right this time if she didn't know what had went wrong?

  
  


She wasn't a proper elf if she couldn't right her wrongs.   
  
  
“My heart for Xadia!” Rayla said with more determination than before, tightening the fabric. This time she would do it right.

  
  
-

  
  
When the humans came, Rayla didn't have the time or the effort to act surprised, which earned her a stronger glare from Runaan than she did the day before, which was fair. She didn't even ask what would happen if they were discovered, she gave Runaan no clue or time to prepare in advance.    
  
  
When the smelly butterfly flew up and landed on her nose, she once again had to hold in a sneeze. It smelled like something old and damp, but she couldn't figure out what, but as she looked closer she saw the same pattern on its wings as the bands on her wrists.   
  
  
Maybe… this odd  _ moth _ had something to do with Moonshadow elves?   
  
  
As Rayla changed back from the image of a tree, she paid no attention to Runaan and his overly dramatic way of saying that she doomed them all, because he often went off on a huge tangent for the overly dramatics. Her mind was solely fixed on the butterfly and how the humans had managed to get their grabby little hands on one.   
  
  
It had elvish markings.    
  
  
Not humanish, so it wasn't theirs.   
  
  
Runaan yelled at her, but it had no effect; she knew it was coming.   
  
  
She knew everything was coming before it happened.    
  
  
It was beginning to get exhausting.

  
  


-

As she jumped into the castle for the second time, she paused at the red carpet below her.

  
  


Red.

  
  


Exactly like the red that had coated her blades, smeared across her face, and covered her hands. Red that she could still vividly see in front of her eyes, crawling up her arms and threatening to choke her. 

  
  


Rayla shook her head to banish the images from her mind. 

  
  


Now was not the time.

  
  


She ran past the same old decorative armour and eventually found the boy, Ezran, once more, in the exact same place she had found him yesterday. Same clothes, same relaxed posture. Same everything.

  
  


A wave of nausea washed over her as the similarities sunk in deeper.

  
  


“Ez, is that you?” Ezran repeated...  _ Wait _ . “You know you can't sneak up on me.” Rayla watched as the boy turned around just like before, noticed her and his sweet open face once again filled with horror upon seeing her. “Uh, uh, you're not who I thought you were. You're one of those with the pointy-”

  
  


Rayla couldn't be bothered it humouring herself on the same conversation she already had about her ears. She knew he found them weird and pointy. That's just what elf ears were like. Although, he must have had a good eye too, because she hadn't removed her hood. She didn't want to.

  
  


Still… wasn't this human _Ez._ Rayla paused, confusion striking through her. “Wait, I thought you were Ezran?”

  
  


“No?” The human looked almost as confused as she did, holding up his hands in a gesture to show he wasn't going to attack. “Who told you that? Why do you want Ezran?”

  
  


Pure anger and hatred filtered through her surprise. “It's  _ your _ fault!  _ You _ made me kill the wrong person yesterday, and it's your fault I'm living this hellish day again!” Rayla unsheathed her blades before she could think, poised to attack. “You will pay for what you have done to me!”

  
  


She must have looked quite a sight. A feared Moonshadow Elf with their hood drawn, anger laced in her voice and pure hatred screaming from her eyes, blades ready and poised. At least, that's what she got from this human, who managed to look even more panicked than she'd ever seen him before.

  
  


“Wait! What did I do?!” he said, backing away slowly, and and Rayla thought he had a desperate look in his eyes, but maybe that was her imagination. Fear. “I- I’m pretty sure I've never met you before, I didn't do anything.”

  
  


Rayla didn't care about a word this liar was spouting. It was  _ his  _ fault she repeated the day.  _ His  _ fault her hand was burned by the blue wisp.

  
  


_ His  _ fault that he was going to pay for.

  
  


“You tell me right now where Prince Ezran is, or I will gut you alive. I won't hesitate, I've done it before.”

  
  


Rayla was slightly scared about the hard tone of her voice, like she was a stone cold killer, but she didn't care. 

  
  


This human had lied to her. 

  
  


“Oh. Uh, d- did you check back there?” He pointed a shaky hand to behind her, and Rayla almost growled back at him.

  
  


“Oh no, I'm not falling for that one again.”

  
  


The human looked almost as if he was about to faint, he looked almost sick. Yeah, he wasn't getting away. Not with that feeble trick of throwing the puny cloth over her head and escaping.

  
  


“How did you-”

  
  


“I can tell the future and everything you're going to do before you even think of doing it,” she spat the sentence from her mouth as if it were acid on her tongue, and pointed a single blade at him… and it wasn't technically a lie. She knew everything he was going to do, “and you're going to tell me where the Prince is.”

  
  


The human seemed to look thoughtful behind the fear he showed, then slumped slightly. “Fine.”

  
  


_ Really? That was it? _

  
  


Rayla had no time to celebrate. “Lead the way.”

  
  


The human nodded and finally put his hands down from their defensive positions, turned around and started walking stiffly. Maybe after today she'd truly end the mission, and return to her normal life. Her sweet linear timeline. 

  
  


She really wasn't doing well with this repeating business.

  
  


But… this human was leading her down the hallway they had gone before, straight towards the door that the human guards would settle in. The door belonging to a hallway filled with the soldiers that Rayla had dodged through on her first day. They were only inches away from the door when Rayla had realised.

  
  


“Hey!” Rayla swung towards the human, who was definitely not leading her to the prince. He was trying to lead her to the human guards! “Don't you dare point me out to your human soldiers.”

  
  


The boy (she was just going to call him Liar) looked at her in shock. “No, I swear he's just behind this door. Trust me.”

  
  


Rayla clenched her teeth, ignoring the familiar unhappy twinge of her wrist bindings. “No. You are lying. There are human soldiers behind this door and I know it.”

  
  


Liar shrugged, but his body language was still rigid. “Only one way to find out.” 

  
  


Rayla watched in muted horror as Liar stiffly raised his hand and knocked on the door three times. It happened so fast she couldn't stop him, and couldn't stop the door from swinging open, missing her by a hair's breadth.

  
  


When the guards burst through the door and noticed her, she couldn't advance with an attack from being distracted by Liar; by the betrayal. She could only defend, ignoring Liar running down the hallways away from her and the fight. She had no hope of chasing after him.

  
  


Only when she realised she had no chance of catching Liar again did she begin to attack.

  
  


Rayla fought with such ferocity that scared her, and it took all five guards working together to take her down. There was no blue wisp this time, no pain. She took a sword to the throat and then she then felt nothing.

  
  
-  
  
  
  


**Day 3**

  
  


Rayla shocked awake with a gasp.

  
  


Okay, definitely not a dream…

  
  


Runaan was on lookout at the top of the tree above her just as before, and the rest of the elves were sleeping on. Peacefully. Unknowing of the horrors racing through her mind.

  
  


Her death could also play part with the repeats.

  
  


Rayla pounded a fist against the bark of the tree, part anger, and part desperate frustration. That damned Liar. His fault  _ again. _

  
  


_ She wasn't going to cry. _

  
  


This time she was just going to forget about him. She was going to try her luck with someone that could prove to be actually useful.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I set up a small poll on whether I should update every week or every two weeks with more words at a time. Go vote in it [here ](https://goo.gl/forms/HLnqGCGKEilEaGn53)
> 
> Also I don't know whether it's just on my device or not, but ao3 does not want to be working with me here with the paragraphs. I'll try fix it when I can.


	3. The Breach

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rayla begins to understand that there are different ways to go at this...

Rayla waited until the binding ceremony was complete for the day (repeat) before she walked off without the group under the pretense of "hearing something and going to check it out". The only reason she didn't leave before the ceremony was that the bands had always acted as a guide, even if it was only tightening when she made a questionable decision.

Still, it was a comfort that she felt that she needed, but knew that she didn't. 

Something elvish in the mass of human culture that was to surround her with each repeat.

This time though, she didn't bother with the tiring climb up the side of the cliff. It was tiresome, and not something she wanted to relive. The tiresome climb brought her many memories and feelings she didn’t want to feel again.

The strain of her lungs, deprived of enough oxygen to keep her aching muscles going. The burn of her throat as she gulped air when she reached the top.

Rayla shuddered at the thought.

Yeah... no. She wasn't doing that for another while.

Instead, she remembered how humans usually had an entrance of some sort leading to their kingdoms. An easier way that she kicked herself for not realising earlier. It was so simple.

Simple... except for the fact that she was an elf, with horns and facial marks and even the lack of rounded ears. 

Rayla huffed as she watched from behind the tree. The human guards were paroling across the walls at the top of the castle, weapons across their shoulders as they walked, as if they were walking with a flag on a stick. More guards were patrolling the bailey before the bridge.

"I'm never going to get by them," she said, half to herself and half to the small bird sitting on the branch above her. It blinked at her blankly. "If I'm going to get past them, I'm going to have to look like them." The bird whistled at her, and flew off along the path away from the castle.

Rayla glanced away from it and back to the humans with a grimace. How was she going to get human clothes, let alone wear them so she'd look like a human?

She was going to have to think; come up with a strategy.

Where did she know that sold human clothes?

From what she knew from Runaan, human markets were often situated along pathways leading to major towns or settlements. To sell to travelling humans on long journeys.

Setting to her fate of playing hide and seek with some merchant for clothes, Rayla backed deeper into the forest. No point of travelling the path if she was going to get spotted and possibly killed.

  
  
  
  


Rayla walked for what she thought was no more than an hour, only coming across a few animals and birds, but she paid no attention to them, and they paid no attention to her in return. All the walking paid off in the form of a small stall with a horse and cart beside it and a human falling asleep at the counter. She had her head perched atop of her hand and looked absolutely bored.

Perfect.

Sneaking up behind the stall, Rayla made as little noise as she possibly could. This was the moment that could make or break her mission. She didn't know how long she would have to travel to reach the next roadside shop… she just didn't have the time.

As she neared the stall, the woman stirred slightly. Rayla could see the vague outline of her sitting up tiredly and looking around. She must have heard her, or have an uncanny sense of when somebody is watching her.

Rayla reached down and picked up a small pebble that lay by her feet and threw it to the other side of the stall, watching as the woman looked across. After realising nothing was afoot, she resumed her previous drifted state.

Rayla ran silently up beside the stall, hiding herself from the merchant with the counter. As she glanced through the clothes, she found a strange human skirt that was bright pink, a blue shawl that would have worked perfectly had it not been lace and transparent, a woolen orange dress that was definitely too big and extremely itchy looking, and even the most elaborate hat with possibly a million brightly coloured feathers sticking out of the top.

Rayla rolled her eyes at that one.

Then she came across a perfect hooded cloak to hide her horns, and gloves to hide the fact that she had the normal amount of fingers and hadn't sprouted an extra one just because. The cloak was a subtle dark blue, not a boisterous bright orange, and even if the gloves were lacey, they still did the job.

She snuck away from the merchant’s stall with a sense of accomplishment and hope.

Today she would enter the castle and fix this loop.

-

“Halt.”

Rayla's heart froze at the guard’s words. Were her ears covered? Could they see her white hair? Did humans even wear gloves anymore? 

Rayla looked at the guard and tried not to panic too much. “Yeah?”

The guard looked her up and down with a slight frown. “I think I've seen that exact cloak before. Are you friends with Evloan?”

Rayla had no idea who Evloan was.

“Yeah.” The guard raised an eyebrow in thought. Rayla stuttered- “Maybe? I got it from a stall on the way in.” It wasn't a full lie. She  _ did  _ get it from the stall on the way to the castle, she just didn't say that she  _ bought  _ it from the stall.

The guard smiled. “Nice. I might stop by there later. Seems like it's got some good stuff.” Were all human guards like this? Why did Rayla ever fear them?

Then again, they think she's also human, so maybe that's a factor to take into account. She  _ was  _ slaughtered by human guards only hours ago, even if it hadn’t technically happened in this timeline.

The other guards nearby were boisterous weapons above their shoulders and in their belts. Not a time to get over confident.

The guard let her continue on her way, and Rayla finally entered the castle grounds. She ignored the noisy chatter in the courtyard and instantly made her way for the keep. That was the building she broke into before, the building that the human page yelled for Lord Viren’s help so he  _ must _ be in there.

The bands on her wrists tightened slightly, but she ignored them once more. She had given up guessing what they wanted. She could never guess right.

Entering the keep was much easier than she had expected. In her mind she saw guards standing in a line, weapons raised and searching every being who wanted to enter the King's personal home.

Nope.

Rayla just waltzed right in, no questions, no strange looks, and even being waved at by one guard in particular that Rayla had no idea what she wanted or who she was. Strange.

Humans were trusting a complete stranger.

Maybe she looked like one of their maids?

-

As she continued to search through the many corridors of the building for what seemed like forever did she realise that she had no idea where she was going… had she already passed that armour? She felt as though she did. It had the same sword?

She looked at the next armour up. Same sword.

Rayla huffed in frustration. “Argh, I'm never going to find him!”

Her band tightened again, and she looked down at it in anger.

“Oh don't you start.”

The band tightened, as if scolding her for being rude, before settling back. She moved her gaze from the band on her wrist back to the hall that she was currently stuck in, and took a deep breath. 

Rayla slumped and took a moment to just breathe.

Her eyes roamed the maze like passages that she could see from where she stood, mentally mapping them up in her head. This was going to take forever, and she didn't have forever. She had a seemingly endless amount of the same day, but not enough time in it.

If she had made any process yesterday, it was all gone down the drain that morning.

_ Nothing lasted. _

After a moment, Rayla straightened her back and took the nearest corner. She couldn't look obviously out of place, or humans would get suspicious. 

They were like bees. If you acted as part of the hive, most never passed any of their attention on you. Likewise, if you looked uncommon or jutted out, they would take a look again and possibly attack if deemed necessary.

They were dangerous, and far less stupid than they first appeared with their blunt ears and ridiculous weapons. 

She cringed inwardly. Luna, she was starting to sound like Runaan.

After a moment, her ears picked up the sound of talking. She braced herself and instinctively continued on with lighter steps, finding that she was holding her breath. All she had to do was look like she belonged. 

It would be  _ fine. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> eh... I know this chapter is a _little_ bit short and I'm not 100% happy with it, so I'm sorry, but this was almost not posted at all today so yay?
> 
> School is extremely draining and I've a throat infection so I can barely talk or eat, so I'm taking a day off tomorrow just to relax bc I've literally not had much time for myself in months and everything is really stressful. I'll try make Tuesday again next week, but chances are I'm gonna stick to my usual of roughly 2,000 words per chapter.
> 
> Don't forget to comment, bc that's my main source of motivation.


	4. Darker and Darker

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A few things go haywire and Rayla is all of them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *shows up a month late with a coffee* I have nothing to say for myself. 
> 
> (An ask on tumblr whipped my ass into shape, so I posted this even if I'm not completely happy with the word count.) Apparently I struggle to write much more than 1.5k at a time.
> 
> Just remember that this fic has a dark theme and that tag is there for a reason.*

The voices brought closer, and Rayla found herself sweating. She cursed inwardly to herself because _it was just humans._ Stinky humans who didn't even notice an imposter was walking into their leader’s home. Was walking among them in a terrible disguise.

As she rounded the corner, she came across the owner of the voices. Two humans. Soldiers with swords hoisted in their sheaths, chatting amongst themselves as if they weren't a few meters away from a feared feral moonshadow elf.

  


At least that's what the humans would think of her. Feral, vicious, and many more horrible words.

  


The guard with long plait falling from the side of her helmet was speaking, clearly annoyed. “-ah, now he's bragging about being stationed here the longest. He acts as if he owns the place and doesn't even clean up after himself!”

  


“Exactly. And being stationed here the longest isn't exactly a good thing. Nothing ever happens around here bar a few riots in the marketplace during bread shortages.”

  


Side-Plait hummed in agreement. “Basically bragging about sitting on his ass all the time, if you ask me.”

  


Rayla snorted to herself as she walked by them, head lowered so there was a higher chance they wouldn't pay her any heed. So they wouldn't see her facial markings. Still, it was nice to see that some problems were universal.

  


“You there!”

  


Rayla froze, slowly turning her head. “Who… me?”

  


Side-Plait was watching her with harsh, weary eyes, and her companion had his hand on his sword’s handle, ready to draw draw it from its sheath. “Yeah-” she took a step forward. “Take down the hood. Slowly.”

  


The blood in Rayla's veins ran cold as she eyed them up as a pure threat for the first time, her eye catching her hands as she raised them to the fabric of her hood.

  


_Her left glove was missing._

  


Her breath hitched.

  


Where was it? How could she just have _lost_ a glove without noticing?!

  


She slowly lowered her hood, taking a close eye on their expressions. Noticing how she could see the once loose and relaxed faced of two colleagues having a rant about a jerk among their ranks turn to pure guarded killers in in split second. They stood for a second, before Side-Plait’s companion drew his sword and pointed it at her.

  


“Hands where we can see them.”

  


Rayla froze.

  


“Now!”

  


She shot her hands up, recognising the tone. It was so unlike the tone Liar had used when he found out she was an elf. Over and over she had heard the surprise, the weariness. But there was and innocence there, like he could befriend her. Like he could convince her to ‘do the right thing’.

  


With these guards, it was voices and expressions like pure steel, and twice as cold.

  


It scared her to the point that she barely recognised as the guy took a whistle from his pocket and blew into it, creating a loud noise which echoed through the corridor. No doubt for signalling more guards of the danger she opposed.

  


She didn't even notice when Side-Plait walked up to her and grabbing her wrists to force them into tight bonds.

  


_Almost_ as tight as her moonbinding was becoming.

  


The band tightened and tightened, as if saying that this was not supposed to happen. She was supposed to find the prince. She was supposed to complete her mission. She was failing. She truly was just a child, thrown into into one hellish day.

  


The band sounded almost like Runaan in her head.

  


She was too busy beginning to struggle against the bonds in a wild panic to recognise the fist connecting with her head and everything went black. Luna, she was tired of her vision going out every time, only to leave this day to wake up in her tree. To wake up after she fell asleep helping Runaan keep watch.

  


She just wanted this nightmare to be over.

  


\----

  


Despite her expectations, she did not wake up in her tree. She didn't wake to the lure of the moon above her, not gasping for breath after being killed for possibly the millionth time in her life. Instead she woke in a dark room with a brick ceiling above her.

  


It was silent, and she blinked through the blurs and spots in her vision as a piercing pain made itself known inside her skull. She pulled past it, ignoring all the twinges that now came with breathing.

  


It took embarrassingly long to realise that she was not alone.

  


A human in a long dark coat and mask stood beside her. The human (she assumed it was a human) looked her up and down, before Rayla's vision blurred out and blotched with spots of black once again.

  


Her breathing laboured as she breathed through her teeth, and it was an undecided amount of time before she could see somewhat clearly once more. This time there were two of them, and they were fretting over a tray beside where she was tied down.

  


Wait.

  


She was tied down?

  


She turned her throbbing head towards her left wrist, tied down to a table. Her right hand was the same, and she tested to see if they were tied tightly, to see if she could have any scrap of leverage in this situation.

  


Nothing. Her hands were tied as tight as they had been before. As were her feet, tied down after she tried to kick them out but they wouldn't let her.

  


“Elf.”

  


Rayla's eyes snapped up to the dark figure, and it bothered her that she couldn't tell if this was the same one from earlier, or if it was a completely different human. If both of these figures were completely different humans… that looked slightly like crows in their costumes.

  


It might have been the lightheaded side of her conscience, but that thought alone brought her into a gigging fit. It jostled her shoulder to laugh but she didn't care. She didn't even care that she hadn't noticed a pain in her shoulder before.

  


The two _crows_ shared a glance… or at least looked in each others direction. It was _really_ hard to tell with their masks.

  


“Elf, you will tell us why you were brought to this castle.”

  


Rayla hummed, acting as if she was mulling the question over in her head. Then she shrugged her good shoulder (which was not as good idea as it pulled across her body and her bad shoulder stabbed with pain). “Nah. Don't feel like it.”

  


The crows stared at her. What, were they trying to have a staring competition? Loser gave the winner all their information?

  


A laugh bubbled out of her throat at that. Didn't this crow know that she was the best at keeping her eyes open? She always won staring competitions against Tinker.

  


Rayla stared back.

  


Eventually, the first one looked at the other, possibly from being a sore loser. Rayla couldn't help but feel smug at her win.

  


“I think we need to give it another dose.”

  


The voice sounded much smoother than she expected a crow would have, but then again what did she know? She never heard a crow talk before.

  


“She's already two milligrams above normal. If we give her more it might kill her.”

  


“You don't know that. It isn't exactly human.”

  


Rayla narrowed her eyes at the one who called her ‘it’. Fine, if he wanted to play it that way, now he was an it. The it wanted to up her dose? What was that…

  


“Exactly why we shouldn't. We don't know how it will affect any elves, let alone one that looks as young as she does.”

  


“It'll do good for science. If it dies, we write that down. New discovery on how elves react to MalTentillion.”

  


Crow seemed to be thinking, before she turned to the tray, withdrawing a needle with some glowing red liquid inside. It looked like moonberry juice that was given a boost. Would that stop her vision from cancelling out every couple seconds, or get rid of her headache?

  


Luna, she hoped it did. She was getting tired of the annoyance it was bringing her.

  


Even though the needle pinched slightly as she injected the red juice into her arm, she didn't protest. Anything to get rid of the spots in her vision.

  


Nothing happened at first, but then a few things did.

  


The walls disappeared, her body felt almost twenty times lighter, and the crows in the room turned into actual crows that no longer spoke English. The crows started cawing to each other in their crow language.

  


It was quite amusing to watch the two crows caw at each other, as if they were arguing.

  


Another laugh bubbled from her, but this time they turned to actual bubbles, floating above her. She wanted to reach up and pop them, but she had no arms.

  


She shrugged and accepted her new fate.

  


Eventually she stopped seeing the world in sound, and tasting colour and she was granted peace.

  


At least for another while.

  


She could faintly feel twinges of pain as her headache worsened to the sharp edge of a blade. She didn't care. It was Rayla's problem, not hers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for not updating. Bye.
> 
> (I'm posting at like 12am so there might be mistakes idk)


	5. Time? Reality?!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have nothing to say for myself...
> 
> I got a few comments that whopped me into shape again, and I am so grateful. If it weren't for those, this fic would still be only 4 chapters.
> 
> I refused to write anything at all for a while bc I hate my writing and my style and how it flows, but what's new there? If I'm writing and people are reading it, then somebody might like it, so I'll write.

Rayla blinked groggily, looking through her darkened tunnel vision and blood that had flowed down into her eyes in a slow oozing trickle. She shut them tight against the onslaught feeling of becoming light headed. She waited a few moments until the pounding stopped, only opening them when she was sure she wasn't going to faint.

As she opened them a second time, she noticed instantly that her eyes had cleared up a bit, and she could make out details of the room in her vision.

She was in a different room than when she had passed out; looking across from her there was a large metal door, no doubt locked. One that not even Runaan could break down, even if he drank an entire bottle of moonberry juice beforehand.

The room was larger than she'd expect a _human_ would allow a prisoner to have, but still not large enough to be a normal, comfortable room. The walls were made entirely of rocks and stones, but as Rayla tried to stand up to get a better view, she felt a pull on her hands.

Finally looking up, she saw her hands fastened on chains, and as she gave them a light tug, she found that they were firmly connected to the wall behind her.

_Figures._

Did she even pass out?

Rayla strained her memory for something...anything. Nothing.

Wait… crows?

She tugged at the restraints with her left hand, but it only made her right hand ache with the lack of room to move and suffering circulation reaching her fingers. She attempted the same with her right, but she knew that she would get the same outcome.

Rayla thrashed in the chain’s tight hold. Her breath stuck in her throat and her lungs squeezed against her chest.

No.

No no no no no.

She couldn't _move._

Rayla felt her vision start to thin and her breath came with great difficulty she managed to get her lungs to cooperate, but it still wasn't working. _Her lungs weren't working._

Her heart beating was drowning out her hearing, and she could feel vomit begin to rise in her throat. Luna above _, she was dying._ She was going to die in a dingy, old, _human_ dungeon with nobody with her.

Suddenly, the fact that she knew she was going to wake up in her tree didn't matter. The fact that this was all temporary and how she could do better tomorrow didn't matter. _She was stuck, and she couldn't move. She was going to die here._

Not even her team could save her, nobody was coming this time. Nobody would hear her, no matter how loud she screamed she screamed for help.

Still, she had to try. Otherwise she'd be stuck down here to die at the human's hands, to suffocate.

“Hello? Runaan? Lair?!” she yelled, hoping that her voice would travel up the stone stairs she could see beyond the metal bars of her door. Her breath came in short breaths, and she curled up as best as she could.

Nobody was coming.

Nobody was there to help her.

She was going to die alone.

“Calm down. _I'm_ here,” a calm voice rang out in the dungeon, the only sound other than her panicked breaths. “You're okay, you'll be fine. You're still alive.”

Rayla felt her breaths come slower as she blinked through the red in her vision. “W-who's there?”

There was a pause before an answer came. “I'm Gren.”

“Where am I?”

“You're in Katolis, in a dungeon,” the voice (Gren) replied, “What happened, is the king okay?”

Rayla paused for a second, almost wishing that she had the answer for this voice. Eventually, she gave in. “I don't know.” Her voice seemed to echo in the room, and she hung her head.

More blood dripped onto her face and Rayla shut her eyes and tilted her head back so it wouldn't obscure her vision.

She really hoped that the crows hadn't broken one of her horns. She loved hanging the silver ribbons off them when the Lunar Fest came, even if they were meant for the assassin and mage elves.

Did she count as an assassin now? Or did the fact that her countless kills would reset each day that passed?

Sadly though, she felt as though she already knew that they had already removed one, if not both of them. _To look more like a human._

Or.. or maybe-

They were going to be used for…. dark magi-

Rayla fought back the feeling of being near vomiting. Now wasn't the time.

The cold surface of the stones against her back caused a chill that seemed to seep right into her bones, and the feeling of it only amplified by the darkness surrounding her. Morbidly, she wondered which would kill her first; the torture that was sure to come, or the conditions of her cell.

She only hoped it was the second one.

She would rather a slow death over a death caused by humans.

“Gren?” she asked, uncertain.

“Yeah?”

“Who are you?”

Rayla waited for an answer, but none came. Rayla slumped again, grateful for the distraction Gren had given her which had allowed her to calm down, but also angry that he had stopped answering.

Well, damn him. If he didn't want to talk to her anymore, he could have just said-

Then, a small answer so quiet she almost didn't hear it. “General Amaya’s voice... I'm Commander Gren, but I don't think that matters anymore.”

A commander?

Humans would imprison one of their own? The more Rayla learned about humans, the more she was repulsed by them.

She shook her head against the pains growing where her horns had started in her skull.

In Xadia, an elve’s horns were a source of pride. When they grew it showed that the elf was growing both physically and mentally during their tween and teenage years. Children would examine their head for the first signs of the pointy appendages, and it was a cause for celebration when they appeared.

But that monstrous human had probably ripped hers from her head.

Her arms shook above her, and a small sob escaped her.

_No_ , she told herself. _There was no reason to cry_ , the horns would be back soon, just when the day reset.

Still, the sobs escaping her grew to wails.

“Are you okay?”

Rayla choked, not even debating telling a lie. “No, I'm not.”

A silence from the voice followed, and Rayla couldn't help the wails that escaped her. Sure, it was a pitying sight, but she couldn't care. The humans took the Dragon Prince and killed him, and now they took her horns.

_Her_ horns.

“Hey,” the voice returned, “What's your name?”

“Rayla,” she hiccuped.

The sudden thought that once the day reset, this human would not remember her, he would go back to his ways and probably hate elves once again. Unexplainable sadness washed over her at the thought and she held back another sob.

“Well, Rayla. What's your favourite fruit? Mine are strawberries.”

She knew that this Gren was trying to distract her, but she didn't care. Any distraction was welcome. “Celesiluns or Dracolas,” she sniffed.

Rayla could hear the smile in Gren’s voice as he answered. “Tell me about them.”

“I.. I c-”

The door banged open, and a tall man strode through. Rayla looked up, ignoring her blurred vision. The man, human man, was obviously a mage. The staff he held stiffly under one hand only sealed the deal.

He had strange blond hair, not white, but not gold. Almost as if it was in between a strange stage of some sort of rebellion.

He regarded her with a cold look, as he glanced around.

“Who are you talking to?”

Rayla sighed. “You don't even know?”

The man tightened his lips.

“Gren? Aren't you a _Commander_?” she added smugly. Surely a Commander was higher in the human chain of whatever it was than some mage who checks on the prisoners. He didn't seem so important to her.

But all was heard was the sound of her breathing.

Something twisted in her chest. “Gren?”

No answer.

The mage looked at her with the expression seen directed at somebody crazy. But...she wasn't crazy. She was literally just talking to-

“Commander Gren is currently on a mission.” He took a step towards her, towering himself. “Now you are to tell me how you know that name.”

Rayla stared ahead.

She was just.. talking to-

Her vision darkened.

Gren was just in the other room.

Asking her about-

_:Time is running like water:_

She squinted up at the mage, who was apparently still talking. “What?”

The mage stopped mid-sentence and stared at her.

_:Time means nothing anymore. Gren isn't supposed to he here:_

“Gren isn't here,” she whispered, furrowing her brow.

Time was repeating itself with every day she woke up. Now that this Gren wasn't even supposed to be here… time was messed up. Everything was messed up.

Did she… break reality!?

She was-

“I'm remembering a future that hasn't even happened yet.”

Fear clutched her heart, as the mage must have gotten tired of her rants.

A bright flash of light, and she was gone, memories of Gren’s voice still ringing in her ears.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So,,, I thought that if time is messed up - time could be even _more_ messed up. Huh?

**Author's Note:**

> Don't forget to leave a comment on what ya thought!!  
>    
> I'm [honey-bow](https://honey-bow.tumblr.com) on tumblr


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